Reservations
by etcetera nine
Summary: When Sarah's boyfriend dumps her a week before prom, she's stuck with a glittery red dress and an empty hotel room. Unless, of course, she can find someone else who might want to dance with her… and anything else, that might come after.
1. It's Tricky

_Chapter One: It's Tricky_

"You're dumping me."

"Yeah, listen, Sarah – "

"You're dumping me, the week before prom."

"Well, I – "

"You're dumping me, the week before prom, for Ashleigh-Ann Anders."

"Yeah, well, about that – "

Sarah stopped pacing the porch and spun around to look at Adam, the boy who, up till about three minutes ago, had been her boyfriend. "What?" she said, icily. "What about Ashleigh-Ann Anders?"

"Well, see…" Adam squirmed. "She puts out."

"She… puts out," Sarah echoed, dumbly.

"Yeah," Adam continued. "You see, Sarah…" His chest puffed up, almost imperceptibly. "I'm a man. I have needs."

"You're… a man. You… have needs," Sarah echoed, again. And then she exploded. "We've only been dating two months!" she shouted. "And you're not a man – you're a teenage boy! You're still 17! I turned 18 in January!"

Adam had started backing down the porch steps, with his hands held up, as if he was negotiating with her.

"And furthermore," she continued, still shouting, "furthermore, that just shows what you know – I made reservations for a room in the hotel, for after prom, so we could – " she caught herself, just in time, mindful of Mrs. Richards next door, who was probably watching their whole argument through her kitchen curtains.

"Well," she said, her voice back to its normal level. "Doesn't matter now, does it? You're going with Ashleigh-Ann Anders."

"You… made reservations?" asked Adam. He looked at her stupidly. "For us?"

"That's what I just said," said Sarah, and folded her arms. "But I guess I'm going to have to find someone else to take."

"Uhhh…" said Adam. "Well, I mean, maybe we could still… that is…" he glanced around the side of her house, to the empty garage. "Are your parents home?"

Sarah wondered if it was possible to set someone on fire with just her mind. She decided it wasn't, and tried for the next best thing – she reached for whatever was closest to her, and threw it.

It was a flowerpot, and it shattered on the pavement in front of Adam's feet, exploding dirt and one of Karen's tulips all over his Topsiders.

"Get out!" she shouted. She reached for another flowerpot.

"Sarah, what the hell – "

"Get out, I swear, I never want to see your stupid face – "

"Sarah, I didn't mean anything – "

"That's right," she told him. "You didn't mean anything. Now, leave." She watched as he backed down the path, nervously looking to see if she would throw anything else. When he was almost out of sight, she shouted, "And tell Ashleigh-Ann Anders I said hi!"

He rounded the corner, without looking back.

Sarah took a breath, and put down the flowerpot. Then she collapsed onto the porch steps, and began to cry, loudly and violently, into her sleeves.

That was how Merlin found her, minutes later, when he put his head across her shoes and whimpered softly. And that was how her dad, Karen, and Toby found the two of them, when they pulled into the driveway 20 minutes after that.

"What the hell – " said Karen, upon seeing the flowerpot. And then, "Oh, honey…" upon seeing Sarah.

"Sarah?" called her dad. "What happened?"

"Adam dumped me. And prom is next week," she wailed, in disbelief.

"But…" said Karen. "We bought you that dress – and your hair appointment – and those shoes – "

"I know," said Sarah, and silently added a non-refundable $75 hotel room to the list. A $75 hotel room which, if not paid for by the morning after the reservation, would be charged to a credit card belonging to an unsuspecting Robert F. Williams.

Toby clambered up the steps and, reaching over to Sarah's face, patted her on the cheek with a sticky hand. "Don't be sad, Sarah," he told her in his high little voice, and offered her a plastic dump truck from the front pocket of his overalls.

Sarah gave her brother a tiny smile, despite herself. "Thank you, Toby," she said. "I feel better now." She put the dump truck in her pocket.

Karen nudged the broken flowerpot with her foot, and sighed. "That tulip was doing so good, too," she said, sadly.

"Sorry," muttered Sarah.

Karen sighed again, then followed her son up the stairs, scooping him up and touching Sarah on the top of her head gently as she passed. "Come on, you sticky beast," she said. "Let's go wash up for dinner." To Sarah's dad, she said, "You'll clean that up later, won't you Robert?"

"Yes, sweetheart," replied Sarah's dad.

When they went inside, and it was just her and her dad on the porch, he handed her a tissue. She blew her nose, noisily. "Thanks," she said, and sniffed.

Her dad cleared his throat. "Would you like me to beat Adam up for you?" he asked. "I'm pretty sure I can. I think that's legal, if you're a dad."

Sarah sighed. "No, dad. But thanks for the offer."

Her dad sat down next to her on the steps. "I know I'm not… good at this stuff – " he started.

"Oh, dad – "

"But – " he pressed on, "I feel like you should know that any boy stupid enough to break up with you is a total idiot."

"You're just saying that because you're my dad," said Sarah, morosely. "You have to say that."

"It's true," he told her. "It's all true. And don't worry, honey, you'll find another date for your prom."

Sarah crumpled the tissue in her fist. "I won't," she said, stubbornly. "It's next week! Everyone's got a date now, and even the boys that don't, they don't want to go with me, they want to go with girls like Ashleigh-Ann Anders."

"Who?" asked her dad. "Is she on MTV?"

"No," said Sarah, glumly. "Nevermind."

"I'm sure there's some guy out there who'd love to take you to a dance," her dad said, his voice comforting. "Some guy out there who'd love to give you the sky, and the moon, and the stars."

The sky… the moon… the stars…?

"…What?" said Sarah.

"Oh, I don't know," said her dad. "I'm just trying to think of all that mushy romantic stuff that girls love. Listen… sometimes, Sarah… teenagers… they're pretty stupid. They don't know what they have until it's gone."

I'll place the sky within your eyes, thought Sarah.

"Sometimes," her dad continued, "they're not even really sure what they want in the first place."

I'll place the moon within your heart, thought Sarah.

"And when they get older," her dad said, "it's easier for them to be sure. So sometimes… you just have to wait."

I'll leave my love between the stars, thought Sarah.

"Anyway," her dad finished, "that's my fatherly advice." He glanced at her, uncertain. "Did any of that make any sense for you?"

"Yes," said Sarah. "It made complete and total sense for me."

"Oh," said her dad, sounding pleased. "Well. Good." He patted her on the knee. "On that note, I'm going to go in and have dinner. The flowerpot can wait a little longer." He stood up. "Are you coming?"

"I'm going to just sit out here, a little bit," she said to him. "You go in. I just want to think, before I go inside."

Her dad shrugged. "Suit yourself. Come on, Merlin." Merlin trotted in after him, and the screen door swung shut.

The sky, the moon, the stars, thought Sarah. Some guy who'd love to take me to a dance. Maybe…

She sat outside for a long time. She weighed her options. She considered the pros and cons.

She thought of the look on Adam's face, when she showed up with her date.

She wanted Adam to be jealous, yes. She wanted _everyone_ to be jealous, their heads turning when they saw who was on her arm. But she wanted more than that.

She thought of the $75 she planned on spending on the hotel room.

She wanted what she had wanted years ago, when it had been the wrong time to ask, and she had not known how to, anyway. And she wanted what she thought she had wanted from Adam, and from Mike, before him, but they were all wrong, and she had probably known that all along.

She thought of the hotel room.

She thought of what she wanted. And of who.

She was confident. She was sure. She was older, now.

And if all else failed, she still remembered the right words.

When the sun went down, Sarah stood up, went inside the house, and walked upstairs. She entered her bedroom. She closed the door. She locked it. She sat down at her desk.

She looked into her mirror. She adjusted her shirt. She fixed her hair.

And then, into the mirror, she said, "I wish to speak to the Goblin King."

Nothing happened.

She tried again. "I wish to speak to the Goblin King."

Still nothing. Was it possible she had been wrong? No – she was sure. She remembered the look on his face.

She tried again, louder this time, "I said, I wish to speak to the – "

"I heard you the first time," drawled a voice behind her. "No need to shout."

She gasped, and spun around in her chair, and there he was.

He was leaning against her dresser, and he looked just as she remembered him. Not the last time, at the end, when he had looked at her so exhausted and sad and… and… something else. But before, when he had been confident, cocky, and sure that he would win.

She felt her heart speed up, just a little bit, and that tight, twisty feeling somewhere between her heart and her stomach – she remembered it from before, and she had thought it was fear, but she wasn't afraid now. Her brother was safe. She wasn't a little girl anymore; she knew what she was doing. And the words, she had the words, she had beaten him, she had won.

If not fear… I'm not afraid of you, she thought, studying him. Not now.

She looked into his eyes, and although they were narrowed and regarding her with suspicion, they were still beautiful. In an instant, her planned speech was forgotten. "Oh," she said. "Hi. How are you?"

His expression changed from guarded to amused. "How am I? How am I? Hmm… let's see." He paused. "How long has it been, since I last saw you?"

"Three years," she said.

"Three years," he repeated. "It has been longer, for me." Slowly, he began wandering around her bedroom, letting his fingers trail along the edges of her furniture and her knickknacks as he walked. "As for how I am, I am still in the midst of paperwork regarding reconstruction of my bridge, my city, and my castle, which you thoughtlessly destroyed. I've had to commission a new goblin giant, which was exorbitantly expensive, and my goblins are now demanding overtime pay for their efforts in stopping you, not to mention they are also clamoring for retroactive health insurance coverage regarding the injuries they received during your battle, which is entirely ridiculous as they are meant to be indestructible." He stopped, and took a breath. "And that, Sarah Williams, is how I am."

"Oh," she said. She had never really considered that her win was also the Goblin King's loss. And she had definitely never considered that the Goblin King's loss involved paperwork. "You're still... after so long?" She thought of how much of her own life had changed since that night.

"Things move very slowly when there are goblins involved," said the Goblin King.

"Oh," she said again.

"Yes," he said. "Oh. Now – tell me, Sarah, since I saw you last… how are you?" His tone of voice lowered at the end, managing to sound both dismissive and seductive at the same time.

"Me? I'm…" My boyfriend broke up with me, I have no date for my prom next week, and I haven't started a 10 page essay on _Heart of Darkness_ that's due tomorrow morning, she thought. "I'm good."

"And your brother?" He was studying her Escher print now, facing away from her, his hands crossed over the small of his back.

"He's good, too," she said. "He's in preschool. He's kind of a troublemaker, though. Last week he hit a kid who bit him."

The Goblin King let out a sharp noise, which might have been a laugh, but it was so quick, she thought she must have imagined it.

He turned to her. "And?" he prompted.

"And?" she asked, mesmerized by his face again. Why was it that he was so beautiful? "And what?" It wasn't right for a man to be this beautiful, really – it wasn't fair.

He rolled his eyes. "Why did you call me, Sarah? I'm assuming it wasn't to gloat, after three years."

"No," she said, bringing herself back to their conversation. "No, no, that's not what I – I didn't mean – I only wanted…" she trailed off.

"What?" he asked. "What do you… want?" There was that low, seductive voice again.

What do I want? she asked herself. What do I want?

She wanted what she had been dreaming about for years now, his hands on her body and his lips on her skin and his voice in her ear whispering, taunting, do you want it –

 _Do you want it?_

She wanted him. And if she asked, she knew he would give in.

"There's a dance," she said, quickly. "At my school, next week. I wanted… I wanted to know if you wanted to take me."

Whatever the Goblin King had been expecting her to say, it wasn't that. "You want me…"

Yes, thought Sarah.

"… to take you to a dance?" he finished, his voice soft, confused.

"Yes," said Sarah, confidently.

He stared at her for a few seconds, his eyes flickering across her face. "Why?" he asked, finally.

"I thought… you might like it," she said, hesitating slightly.

"That's it? No other reason? Nothing else?" he prompted.

"No," she said. "No other reason. Nothing else."

Without breaking eye contact with her, he stretched out his hand, reaching to her dresser to pick up her music box. On her 16th birthday, Sarah had packed up a lot of the things in her room – the stuffed animals, the games – that reminded her of the Labyrinth. Some, like the Escher print, she had kept. She had never had the heart to put away her music box.

The Goblin King was looking at the dancer now, his expression unreadable. In his hand, she spun in silent circles, and then, to Sarah's surprise, she picked her face up, lifted her arms out, reached for him – and then she was still again, and he put the music box down.

He looked at her again. "Name your terms."

"My… what? What terms?"

"Your terms," said the Goblin King. "What are your conditions?"

"Um," said Sarah, momentarily distracted again. "Right. Okay. Be here at 5:30 next Friday afternoon. You'll have to meet my parents. And wear a tuxedo."

"Is that all?" he asked.

"It would be nice if you brought me a corsage," she said, and then added quickly, before she lost her nerve, "and… you have no power over me."

He scowled. "Yes, yes, no power, tra la la." Leaning back against her dresser again, he looked over her, slowly. "Fine. I accept. Now, my terms."

Sarah nodded.

"Just one request," he counted, holding up a gloved finger. He glanced at her.

Sarah nodded again.

"The fulfillment of which," he said, "I will claim at a time of my choosing."

Somehow, she was not surprised. "Um… what is it?"

"Well," he said, "now that would be telling, wouldn't it?" He crossed his arms and grinned.

Sarah stood up and leaned against her desk. She crossed her arms, mimicking him and mirroring his position across the room. She was almost as tall as him; he only had a few inches on her, now. "You need to tell me what this request is, Goblin King. Let's negotiate."

He stopped grinning. "It's not negotiable," he said.

"You're not allowed to kidnap me," she told him. "No power, remember?"

"What do you take me for?" he protested, offended.

"Um, a Goblin King who kidnaps people, maybe? So, we negotiate. Do you want to take me to this dance or not?" Sarah asked, pointedly.

He laughed, although it seemed like it was mostly at himself, rather than for her benefit. "Yes, that is the question, isn't it, Sarah? Do I want to take you to this dance… or not?" He looked at her, considering.

Oh God, thought Sarah. He's going to say no.

"For some reason, Sarah, with you," he said to her, slowly, "what I want seems to always be… irrelevant. Everything that you wanted, I have done." He tilted his head, studying her like she was a puzzle, a problem to solve. "I hardly see why that should stop, now."

"So is that…" said Sarah, her voice wavering, only a little bit. "Is that a yes?"

He smiled, his eyes sharp. "That is a yes. And as for my request..." he said. He held out his right hand, and a crystal appeared on his palm, spinning around lazily. He twisted his hand, and the crystal traveled up to the tip of his finger, where it stayed, perfectly balanced. "I give you my word that you'll find it... agreeable. And if you'd still like to negotiate, well... We can do that at a more... convenient time." He looked her up and down, running his eyes over her, lingering on her face.

Oh, she thought. _That_ kind of request.

She straightened her spine, pulled her shoulders back. She knew what she wanted, she thought. Let him want, too.

"Until next week, Sarah," he said.

"Until next week… Jareth." She watched as he started to fade away.

"Oh," he said. "One more thing – what color is your dress?"

He was almost completely gone now. "Red," she told him. "It's red."

The last thing she saw, before he disappeared completely, was his grin.

* * *

 _A/N: Hi, guys. Long time no see._

 _This chapter and the next few chapters have been very-mostly written for years. In an effort to bring some creativity back into my life, I am putting them out there and hoping that some more creativity comes from it.  
_

 _Three cheers to everyone for being creative, and creating, and an extra cheer for every one of you who encourages it._

 _A/N take 2: Thank you x a million to kzal, my co-chair on the goblin prom committee, voted Most Likely to Succeed at Being the Best.  
_


	2. Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'

_Chapter Two: Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'_

The next Friday after sixth period lunch, Sarah left school early – along with most of the girls in the senior class – and went to her hair appointment. There were a few salons in town, and Sarah was willing to bet that they were all as packed as hers, filled with teenage girls in various states of nervousness and anticipation, with dozens of long-suffering hairdressers attempting to pin, braid, and twist their hair into something that looked effortlessly romantic.

"What are you thinking?" asked her hairdresser, Barbara, popping a bright pink bubble with her gum. She played with Sarah's hair. "It would look nice up."

"Down," said Sarah, looking at herself in the mirror. "I definitely want it down. And can you make it… kind of curly? And big." She opened her palm. "I brought these clips."

"Hmm," said Barbara. "Sparkly. All right." She nodded. "I'll get the Aquanet."

By the time she paid, and drove home, she only had a couple of hours left to get ready. She ran up the stairs to her bedroom. Karen was coming down.

"Let me see, let me see – " Karen called, as Sarah dashed past. She stopped, and spun around.

"Pretty," said Karen. "I love those clips. You didn't want it up?"

"I didn't want it up," said Sarah. "Thanks – gotta go!" She turned and ran up the last few steps.

"Wait, Sarah – do you need help with your makeup? I could – "

"I'm good!" she called, shutting her door. She opened it. "Thanks, though!" She shut it again.

Her dress was hanging across the back of her closet door. It was long, red, satiny, and strapless, tight across the bodice and flaring out flatteringly at the waist. It would have been a fairly simple dress, if not for all the sequins sewn across it, which were almost blindingly bright when the light hit it. She hoped she wouldn't look like a red disco ball. Her shoes were high heeled silver sandals, and she'd worn them a few times around the house, much to Toby's amusement, trying to break them in. It hadn't done much good.

She undressed, and quickly showered, trying her best not get her hair wet and mostly succeeding. When she got back to her bedroom, she studied the dress again.

She thought he would like the dress. He had smiled when she told him the color – and she was pretty sure he would like the sparkles. She glanced at herself in the mirror. She knew he would like her hair.

She sat down in front of her mirror, to put her makeup on. He would like her hair… wouldn't he?

"Right," said Sarah, to her reflection. "Stop it. This is what's going to happen. The Goblin King is going to come to your house. He is going to take you to prom. You are going to dance. You are going to go to the hotel room. You are going to seduce him, and then... It will be… great."

She didn't sound so convinced. She tried again.

"It will be really, really good."

Nope.

She thought about Adam, and what she had been expecting when she called up with her dad's credit card to book the hotel room. Awkwardness, maybe. Romance? No.

She thought about the Goblin King again, the look on his face when she left him. With him, it would be different, surely?

"It… It'll be fine," she told herself. "It'll be fine."

There we go.

"And then," she continued, "you will go home. Easy. No problem."

She put her makeup on, slowly and carefully, trying not to poke herself in the eye with the mascara wand. She looked at herself critically in the mirror. She looked down at herself in her towel. She sighed.

She repeated the night's itinerary over and over again as she dressed, until it became a mantra of _Goblin King - dance - Goblin King – home_. She put on her jewelry, a heart on a silver chain that had been a gift from her mother for her 16th birthday, and a gold ring with a sapphire that had been a gift from her dad and Karen for her 17th. She put on the perfume her mother had bought her – for special occasions, she had said – which smelled like gardenias. She put lipstick, her keys, and the money she had saved up from babysitting into her little silver bag. She looked at her clock.

It was 5:15.

"Karen!" she shouted, opening her bedroom door. "Can you come up here?"

Seconds later, she heard footsteps on the stairs, and Karen appeared around the corner.

"Oh, honey," said Karen. She stepped back, and smiled, taking Sarah in. "You look great. You look really, really pretty."

"Really?" asked Sarah, looking down at herself.

"Really," Karen said. "Your date is going to faint. Your dad might, too, come to think of it."

Sarah laughed, picturing the Goblin King falling into a swoon at the sight of her. Not likely – but a nice thought all the same.

"Can you do up my dress?" she asked. "I can't reach the top." She turned around, and, contorting her arms, she pointed at the zipper in the back.

"Of course," said Karen, and pulled the zipper up smoothly. "Are you done getting ready?"

Sarah nodded.

"You don't need anything else?"

She nodded again.

"You sure?"

"Yes," she said. Nothing else that Karen could help her with, anyway. She imagined their conversation. Actually, Karen, tonight I'm hoping to sleep with a fairytale king from another world who once stole your infant son – do you think that's a good idea? Any advice for me?

"I'm good," she said, instead. "Thanks for your help with the zipper."

"Okay," said Karen. She turned to leave the doorway. "We'll shout when the doorbell rings, so you can answer it." She smiled. "Wouldn't want Toby to scare him off."

"I don't think we have to worry about that," said Sarah. "But thanks." She shut the door again.

Ten minutes, now. She sat down in front of her mirror again, careful to arrange the dress so that it wouldn't wrinkle. She put her shoes on.

Goblin King – dance – Goblin King – home, she thought. And then, into the mirror, she said, "Hoggle, I need you."

It had been a few months since she had spoken to any of her friends from the Labyrinth. When she first got back, she spoke to them almost every day – about Toby, about Karen, about school, about her new friends Above. But after a while, she started calling on them less and less – the things she wanted to talk about the most, it seemed, weren't things she could talk about with them.

The first time she had brought up, tentatively, a misunderstanding that she had had with Mike, her first boyfriend – who she eventually broke up with because he got stupidly jealous when she stayed after school to help out with the drama club – Hoggle had turned a violent shade of purple, Ludo had _growled_ , and Sir Didymus had given a long winded speech on the importance of preserving one's honor, which had made everything incredibly awkward and left them all slightly mortified.

She didn't talk to them about boys anymore.

When Hoggle appeared, he seemed surprised. "Oh," he said. "It's you. Been a while." He looked at her dress. "Where're you off to?"

"I'm going to a dance," she said. "I just wanted… I wanted to say hi."

"Oh," he said. "Well, hello."

"Hi," said Sarah, again. "Hoggle, listen, I have a question – " She had a lot of questions, if she was honest. But she wasn't sure which ones she could ask.

Is this the right thing to do? Am I doing this for the right reasons? Am I making a big mistake? Am I a total idiot? What am I _doing_?

She wasn't sure which ones he would have the answer for, either.

"The Goblin King – " she started, and then surprised herself by asking something she hadn't bothered to wonder about until this very moment. "He's not married, is he?"

"Married?" He started laughing. "Married! Jareth? Don't make me laugh," he laughed.

"Oh," said Sarah, relieved. "Well, that's good."

Hoggle stopped laughing. "Why's that good?"

The doorbell rang.

"Sarah!" called Karen.

"Why's that good?" Hoggle asked again.

"I gotta go!" She grabbed her silver bag and headed for the door. "Bye, Hoggle!"

"Why's that good?" he asked, shouting now, pressing his face up against the mirror.

"Sarah!" called Karen.

"I'll talk to you tomorrow," she said to him, over her shoulder, opening her door.

"Sarah! Now listen – come back – what are you… Sarah! What are you playing at? What do you think you're doing?"

"I'm all right," she told him. "I know what I'm doing. Bye, Hoggle." She smiled at him, reassuringly, and shut the door.

I know what I'm doing, she told herself, as she walked, carefully, down the stairs.

When she got to the front door, she steadied herself, taking a breath. She pulled the door open. And there he was. This is it, she thought. Here we go.

His eyes widened as he took her in. "Oh," he said. "Hello. How are you?" He looked momentarily out of place, almost like he was wondering how he had found himself here, on her front porch – but then it was gone, and he grinned, and he was the Goblin King again.

He looked beautiful. Sarah wasn't sure she had ever thought that before, about any man besides him, but when it came to the Goblin King, it was true. He looked wonderful. He looked… he looked…

He looked like the lead singer of a glam rock band who had a fondness for dramatic eye makeup, dressed in a nice tuxedo.

Oh God, she thought, I haven't thought this through, have I?

Pinned to the lapel of his tuxedo, he was wearing a rose in a color she had never seen before. Near the stem, it was white, but the petals blended seamlessly to a vivid red at the tips. He saw her looking. "Do you like it?" he asked, his eyes shining at her. "I brought you one. Give me your hand."

Wordlessly, she held out her left wrist, trying to keep it from shaking. His fingers, feather-light – no gloves, she thought to herself, slightly hysterically, no gloves – brushed against the inside of her wrist as he tied the ribbon of her corsage.

It matched her dress perfectly.

Still silent, she moved aside. He walked through the door, looking around the front hall with interest.

Then Sarah heard Karen shout at the other end of the house, and in a second, Toby was careening in, speeding through the hallway and running directly into the Goblin King's legs. He bounced off, and plopped onto the floor.

"Well, well, well," said the Goblin King, slowly. He crouched down. "Hello, Toby," he said, quietly. "I was wondering if I would see you again. Do you remember me?"

Sarah watched, hardly daring to breathe as her little brother contemplated the Goblin King, who was waiting patiently, still crouched at eye-level. Did Toby remember him? Did Toby remember any of it? It was something she wondered, too, from time to time. But he was a normal four-year-old boy, for the most part, and if sometimes, he was a little bit more misbehaved than the other kids his age, well – Sarah chalked it up to coincidence.

Toby wobbled to his feet and padded towards him. Sarah watched as he looked into the Goblin King's face, considering, and then put his hand into his pocket. He pulled out a little rubber dinosaur.

"For me?" asked the Goblin King.

Toby nodded, and dropped the dinosaur into the Goblin King's hand.

"It's a triceratops," Toby pronounced carefully, as the Goblin King looked over it, appraisingly.

"He's going through this phase," interrupted Sarah. "He likes to give people things. But he'll ask for it back pretty soon." It had taken Toby exactly three days to remember the dump truck he had given her, that night last week when she cried on the porch, and he had followed her around whining, "Truck, Sarah! Give me truck!" until she unearthed it from under a pile of homework on her desk.

"Is that so?" asked the Goblin King, still looking at the dinosaur in his palm thoughtfully. After a second, the dinosaur's tail started twitching, and it let out a squeaky roar.

OK, admitted Sarah. That was pretty adorable, what he did just now.

"Whoa," said Toby. Then he started to laugh hysterically. "Funny!" he cried. He clapped. "I like you!"

Karen and her dad walked in then, and her dad scooped a still laughing Toby up into his arms. "Sorry," he apologized. "We tried to contain him, but he's extremely slippery."

"Funny!" laughed Toby, pointing at Jareth. "Funny, funny man!"

Jareth stood up, surreptitiously slipping the now-still dinosaur into his pocket. Sarah waited for her parents to say something about his hair, his eyes, but… nothing. They just smiled at her, patiently waiting for an introduction. "Uh… This is… my dad," she said, awkwardly.

Maneuvering Toby around, his dad held out his hand. "Hi," he said. "I'm Robert. Nice to meet you."

Jareth shook it. "Jareth. The pleasure is all mine."

Her dad gestured towards Karen. "This is Karen, Sarah's stepmother."

"Enchanted," Jareth said. He leant down and kissed Karen's hand, who giggled girlishly.

"Oh!" Her eyebrows raised, and she glanced at Sarah meaningfully. "So charming!"

"I have to apologize," Robert said, watching his daughter's date's interaction with his wife a little suspiciously, "Sarah hasn't told us very much about you."

Well, crap. Sarah looked behind her, to the window near the door. "The limo will be here in a second," she said out loud, to all of them.

"She hasn't?" asked Jareth, looking at Sarah and smiling. "I can't imagine why."

"We're the last stop before the hotel," she continued. "It'll have picked up Maggie and Mei Lin and everyone already. So… maybe we should just wait outside," she finished, lamely, and thought again, I really haven't thought this through, have I?

She was saved by Karen, who said, tugging on her dad's sleeve, "Robert, let's get the camera. I want a picture of them before they go."

"Be right back," said her dad, and they disappeared down the hall, Toby waving over her dad's shoulder. Sarah let out a breath.

There. That hadn't gone too badly, had it?

But then – "Not told them very much about me, have you?" Jareth said to her, softly, suddenly very close.

"I said… you were a friend of a friend," she defended herself. "I figured that would be enough –" she turned to look up at him. "But I don't understand why they're not – "

"Sarah," he said. He gestured towards the mirror above the mantelpiece. "Look in the mirror."

She looked. Her reflection looked back at her, a little confused. Next to her was a blond teenage boy. She looked at Jareth, at her side. She glanced back at the reflection.

A blond teenage boy with shaggy hair that fell across his forehead in an artful, I-don't-care-what-my-hair-looks-like-but-I-know-it-looks-amazing kind of way. A blond teenage boy with a long nose, high cheekbones, and blue eyes that were – she focused – a little bit different, if you looked closely.

A _cute_ blond teenage boy.

His ears stuck out a little, she realized, and was surprised at herself by how sweet she thought that was. Their reflections actually made a really nice looking couple, she thought, a little absently.

"Is that… is that _you_?" she asked his reflection.

It smirked back at her. Definitely him.

She looked at Jareth, the real one, standing next to her. "How are you…" she started, slowly.

"This is what everyone but you will see, tonight, when they see me," he said to her.

"Oh," said Sarah. "Should we have a plan, though? In case - in case people have questions, or - "

"No one will have any questions that I can't handle," Jareth said. His eyes were still locked on hers in the mirror.

"So… is that you?" she asked him. "Is that what… you used to look like?"

"Why?" he asked her. He was right next to her, his suit brushing against her bare arm, but he managed to move a tiny bit closer. "Do you like it?"

"Okay guys, picture time!" called Karen, behind them. Sarah jumped.

Outside, a horn honked.

Here we go, thought Sarah.

"Gotta go!" she told her parents. "Bye, don't forget I'm staying at Mei Lin's house tonight, I'll see you guys tomorrow!" Grabbing Jareth by the elbow, she propelled him towards the door.

"Wait!" cried Karen, desperately. "Oh, just one picture, Sarah, wait a second!"

The horn honked again.

"Sarah, let her take the picture, she's been talking about this for weeks – " her dad broke in.

"Picture picture picture!" cried Toby, hanging off her dad's leg.

"Okay, okay, fine – " she glanced at Jareth – "but then we have to leave, we're going to be late – "

"Okay, smile!" called Karen. Sarah grinned, and right before the shutter clicked, Jareth pulled her tight against him, and purred into her ear, "I like your hair, Sarah."

She froze in place.

"Good!" said Karen. "That'll be a good one, you guys look so cute, you look a little wide-eyed, though, Sarah, I hope you didn't blink – "

He liked her hair.

The horn honked again.

He liked her hair. She had known he would. That was good, right?

"Well?" said her dad. "Go! Before it leaves without you!"

"What?" she said. "Oh – right. The limo! Okay, bye guys, bye, love you, see you tomorrow, bye Toby!"

Pulling Jareth through the door, Sarah walked down the pathway quickly, hearing her parents and Toby call their goodbyes behind her. Well, her parents were calling goodbye, at least. Toby was calling out about his triceratops, and could he have it back now, please.

As they got closer to the limo, Jareth pulled her to a stop. "Whose house are you staying at, tonight?" he asked her.

Sarah turned to face him, trying to balance on her silver heels. "Oh – Mei Lin. She's my best friend," she said. She gestured towards the limo. "But I'm not really staying with her tonight – I lied, I… that was a lie." She looked at him. She would have to say something eventually, wouldn't she? She glanced at the front door of her house, which her father had just pulled shut, and down the pathway to the limo, with her friends inside, waiting.

"The dance is in a hotel, and..." But no matter how brave she told herself she felt, she couldn't bring herself to say it.

Later, she told herself. I'll tell him later.

"You and your friends are staying at the hotel tonight instead?" filled in Jareth. "Unsupervised debauchery?"

"Kind of," admitted Sarah.

Jareth laughed, and she thought that he seemed positively gleeful. "And here I thought we were just going to a school dance," he said. "But now... this sounds much more like my sort of night."

Then he winked at her.

The horn honked again, and with the noise, Jareth took her arm. They both started walking back down the path towards the street.

The door to the white stretch limo opened for them, from the inside, as they approached. "So, I'm going to introduce you to my friends now," Sarah said to Jareth, thankful for the change in the subject, for the moment. "Be nice to them, would you?"

"When am I not nice?" asked Jareth, sounding miffed. Sarah snorted.

When they reached the open door, Jareth took her hand and put his other hand on her waist to help her through. "After you," he said.

"Oh," she said, looking at his hand over hers. "Thanks." You better get used to this, Sarah, she told herself, willing her pulse to stop racing. He's going to be touching a lot more than just your hand if the night goes how you've planned it.

As he bent down to help her through the door, he whispered, "You're welcome. And Sarah…" She could almost hear his grin.

She paused, halfway in the car.

"I like your dress, too."

She swallowed, and slid inside.

* * *

 _A/N: You may have noticed by now that the chapter titles are all '80s songs. Yes, I am taking suggestions :) Please let me know if you have any favorites and I'll use them if they fit. (Dance Magic Dance does not count.)_

 _A/N 2: Thank you to kzal, who this chapter has been voted Most Likely To Give Me Excellent Ideas And Also Question Me About Prophylactics._


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